Ministers have done no such thing - as anyone with a longer memory than 5 seconds will note once the Sun gets onto detailing how this has apparently happened:

Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, whose Muslim Arbitration Tribunal runs the courts, used a clause in the Arbitration Act 1996. It allows Sharia hearings to be classed as ‘arbitration tribunals’.

Uh, so it's nothing whatsoever to do with this government at all then? I'm fairly sure that we were still under the yoke of a certain John Major in 1996. This government hasn't given Sharia courts the power to do anything.

As you might have expected, this article appears to be based on one in yesterday's Sunset Times, which also includes another crucial fact:

Err, but again, this is nothing to do with this government, and it hasn't been sneakily adopted into British law, unless it was without debate 12 years ago. If we're going to blame anyone, let's blame the Conservatives.

"A clause in the 1996 Arbitration Act allows Muslim tribunals to make rulings in civil cases using sharia law, enforceable by British courts, if both sides agree.

It means prejudice against women and leniency for violent husbands.

We must not allow this parallel justice system.

It is a major step down the dangerous path which sees Muslim communities living in isolation from the rest of Britain.

Just the kind of segregation under which extremism thrives."

Fair enough as it goes; no one is suggesting that Sharia law isn't completely unacceptable, not least that court which the Sun loathes so much, the European Court of Human Rights, which has ruled Sharia law is incompatible with democracy.

If we're not going to allow civil Sharia courts to rule on divorce etc though, when both parties are agreed, are we also going to allow the Beth Din to continue, considering that's also a parallel justice system, and which must also therefore encourage segregation and isolation? True, it might not be Jews that are strapping explosives to themselves and blowing other people up, or plotting to explode bottles of sugary liquid on airplanes, but it's religious law also. Isn't it that at the moment almost anything goes when it comes to criticising Muslims because of what they supposedly want (which the Sun also has a role in promoting considering the coverage it continues to give to completely unrepresentative morons like Anjem Choudary) while if similar comment was made on Jews and their similar legal system, the accusations of anti-semitism would be flying?

"The Government must plug this loophole."

Perhaps it might be more inclined to do so if the Sun and other individuals weren't blaming it for introducing the problem in the first place.

2 comments:

Gotta love the sheer misogynistic cuntery of "obviously Muslim women couldn't *choose* to have disputes settled according to the tenets of their religion, they must've been coerced into it, poor lambs".

The comments on this piece give a pretty good understanding of the current status of the Beth Din in the UK. Note that it actually has /more/ substantial legal standing than sharia tribunals, due to the Religious Marriages Act 2002.

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